8/23, 2:12 PM - Ten NHL Players who deserve better
After a significant hiatus of sorts (primarily brought on by the utter lack of NHL news in August), Caps Blue Line is back with the one foil-proof article idea for when there’s absolutely nothing of substance to write about (thanks for the idea, VH1). In addition to this list I plan to post division previews and a summaries of the most intriguing Capitals and NHL storylines for the 2008-09 season. For today, we’ll be taking a look at ten great NHL players stuck in bad situations and who, for their skill level and work ethic, deserve better.
10. Jarome Iginla (Right Wing, Calgary Flames). The Flames aren’t a bad team but, truthfully, they’re not that good of a team either. Calgary relies heavily on the core of Iginla, Dion Phaneuf and Miika Kiprusoff. While that’s about as good a core as any team in the NHL, the supporting cast isn’t good enough to make Calgary a serious Cup contender and the organization’s average farm system means there won’t be a ton of help on the way in the next couple seasons. The issue here isn’t as much with the Flames as it is with Iginla: for the talent and passion Iginla posseses he deserve to play on a contender every season.
9. Dan Boyle (Defenseman, San Jose Sharks). Okay, I admit it: a portion of why Boyle is on this list is just to fill it out. After all, the guy went from the team with the NHL’s worst record in 2007-08 to the team with the second best and is slated to make forty million dollars over the next six years. Nonetheless Boyle had committed to the Lightning by signing that six year deal and was forced to waive his no trade clause by being told he would be waived otherwise (apparently the threat of having to play in Atlanta for the next six years was enough to sway Boyle), a classless act that significantly hurt the credibility of Tampa’s ownership group.
8. Anze Kopitar (Center, Los Angeles Kings). Kopitar’s inclusion in this list has more to do with his talent level than the state of the Kings
organization. Though the team hasn’t been to the playoffs since 2002, the system is stacked with young talent like Drew Doughty, Jonathan Bernier and Thomas Hickey. Additionally, young quality players like Alexander Frolov, Jack Johnson and Dustin Brown provide Kopitar with decent support at the NHL level. Nevertheless, Kopitar is an elite talent who deserves to be playing for a playoff team, which he may well do in 2008 or 2009.
7. Tomas Kaberle (Defenseman, Toronto Maple Leafs). As is the case with most of players on this list, Kaberle plays for a team that is not only a mess on the ice but a mess in the front office as well. The three-time all-star has 178 post-lockout points, but hasn’t seen the playoffs since before the work stoppage.
6. Rick Nash (Left Wing, Columbus Blue Jackets). 363 regular season games, 154 goals, and Nash still hasn’t come close to the playoffs in the five seasons he’s spent in the NHL. Luckily for him Columbus looks like a team on the rise and Nash should get some postseason hockey in the next couple of years.
5. Roberto Luongo (Goalie, Vancouver Canucks). First Luongo was unceremoniously dismissed from Long Island to make room for Rick DiPietro. Then he spent five seasons in Florida, never making the playoffs. The move the Vancouver set Luongo up with a better team, a better organization and a larger fan base. That being said, Vancouver isn’t exactly the best run team in the league and after Luongo and the Sedin twins, there isn’t a whole lot of depth. Luongo has played in 490 regular season games but has only played 12 playoff games, all in 2007, and has a 5-7 postseason record despite a 1.77 goals against average and a .941 save percentage.
4. Olaf Kolzig (Goalie, Tampa Bay Lightning). Let’s be clear: this is not to say it was acceptable for Kolzig to speak out in the media the way he did or to skip the mandatory team meeting after the Capitals were eliminated by the Flyers in the first round of the playoffs. It’s not to say the Capitals should have retained Kolzig for the 2008-09 season even if it meant accommodating all his wishes. It’s definitely not to say the team should have traded for, and leaned on, Cristobal Huet last season. Kolzig may not be perfect but he helped the Capitals both on and off the ice for more than ten years, was willing to stick it out with the organization during their dismantling and rebuilding, and in some ways remained a class act until the bitter end. The harsh reality of the NHL means the Capitals don’t necessarily owe Kolzig anything at the moment bit in a cosmic, karmic, universe-in-harmony sense, Kolzig deserves to end his career playing meaningful hockey, not as the backup for a lottery pick team with the most insane ownership group in the NHL.
3. Olli Jokinen (Center, Phoenix Coyotes). At 723 regular season games without ever having played in the playoffs, Jokinen is only thirteen off the NHL’s all-time record. Though he’s now with an up-and-coming group in Phoenix, odds are that Jokinen will the one holding the record come April of 2009, an unfair distinction for a player who’s averaged over a point per game since the lockout while playing with a defense-first and shallow-talented club in Miami.
2. Jay Bouwmeester (Defenseman, Florida Panthers). Bouwmeester is an annual contender for the Best Player You’ve Never Heard Of award, languishing in a playoff-less purgatory in South Florida. A true two-way defender with the talent to by the top defenseman for almost any team in the league, Bouwmeester has played 389 NHL games but never in the playoffs.
1. Ilya Kovalchuk (Left Wing, Atlanta Thrashers). You’d be hard pressed to find a current NHL player who posses so
much talent yet has had so little around him for such an extended period of time. Excluding the traded-away Marian Hossa, Kovalchuk led his team in goals by 35 (52-17), points by 42 (87-45) and assists (albeit only by two, 35-33), and things don’t look much better for the 2008-09 season. While the drafting of Zack Bogosian and the signing of Ron Hainsey are steps in the right direction, the Thrashers will be picking in the top five in 2009 and Kovalchuk will have to suffer through another playoff-less season.
Tomas Fleischmann - Flash has nothing left to prove at the AHL level, where he’s scored 114 points in 102 games since 2005, but he hasn’t been able to consistently contribute offensively in Washington. I think Flash stands a pretty good chance at getting on the scoresheet on a regular basis now that he’s becoming aware that he is not skilled enough to get by on skill alone and has hence started working harder without the puck and driving to the net. I’m still not completely sold on Fleischmann though and time is starting to run out for him, although you’d have to think that if he’s ever going to show he can play at the NHL level it would be under another relatively slight winger who showed a ton of skill in the minors but couldn’t stick in the NHL.
Viktor Kozlov - Kozlov hasn’t been as bad as some Caps fans seem to think (a number of people have recently advocated his benching in the comments on Capitals Insider). He’s second on the team in assists and shots and is getting his chances - he just needs to start converting them. And he will.
Olaf Kolzig - After allowing six goals on 22 shots against Ottawa (despite not playing all that poorly) Kolzig’s save percentage is down to .888 and his GAA up to 3.02. His numbers haven’t been stellar and he’s let in a number of soft goals, but he has been playing better recently, even if the numbers don’t show it. With Johnson out 2-4 weeks and with the team playing well and gaining ground in the playoff race the Capitals need Kolzig to be a solid presence in net.
Matt Pettinger - In a season that has been disappointing thus far for Capitals fans perhaps no single player has been as disappointing as Pettinger, who has only five points in 37 games and was a healthy scratch against Ottawa. But the numbers look worse than Pettinger’s play has been - while Pettinger has only two goals he is getting his chances and his shots per game average (1.86) is about the same as what it’s been the last couple years (1.81), and you don’t go from being a guy who shoots better than 14% to a guy who shoots under 3% without some bad luck in there. Although Pettinger has only three assists he has played much of the year with Boyd Gordon and David Steckel, neither of whom is finding the net on a regular basis. At this point I think Pettinger’s problem is largely mental - he looked like he was on his game early in the year and I think the lack of success he’s had playing his game started to get to him, he started to doubt himself, got off his game and has looked a little lost. Hopefully sitting out a game or two helps him get his head back together and boosts his on-ice performance.
Jeff Schultz - Schultz is a defensive defenseman, so unlike Kolzig or Kozlov it might not be as obvious when he turns a corner and is able to elevate his game. Rather than flashy goals or saves, Schultz is at his best when he plays positionally, frustrates opponents and avoids mistakes. Not especially jaw-dropping stuff, but it’s an important role nonetheless. Sarge has been looking smarter and more comfortable almost by the game and is close to becoming a very solid backline presence. Schultz has also taken some heat for not being physical enough given his size (6′5”, 215) and the nature of his game. I don’t think it’s that Schultz won’t initiate contact, I think it’s that he doesn’t want to draw himself out of position trying to deliver a big hit. As he become more aware and more confident in his own end watch for his physical game to improve as well.
David Steckel - I conceived this post a couple weeks ago, but the holidays make me lazy (you know it happens to you too) and I wish that I’d written it up before before Steckel three-point performance against Tampa Bay, but here it goes anyway: Steckel has received praise from Caps management and fans for doing jobs that are all too often underappreciated (playing a defensive role, faceoffs, penalty kills) and so it’s become easy to forget that he put up 61 points (30+31) in 71 games for Hershey last year. While Steckel will never be a great scorer at the NHL level he has enough talent to chip in offensively on a consistent basis. Lately he’s looked more comfortable in the offensive end, going to the net more often, being more assertive and showing better vision, so I’d expect some points to follow.